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Question for Hackney drivers
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Author:  ARC Taxis [ Mon Sep 18, 2006 5:40 pm ]
Post subject:  Question for Hackney drivers
I bought a hackney Eurotaxi a few months ago which i used when i worked for a private hire taxi company using private hire cars only.

I left the company a few weeks ago as i wanted to start up by myself and that was the reason for getting the eurotaxi.

After a few weeks working the taxi ranks in the day and at night i have encountered a snag with another driver, herein lies the problem!

The driver in question has been a hackney driver for a long time and knows all the rules inside and out. Since the first time i have spoken to him all he has gone on about is rules and how they apply. Now the rule i have a problem with is this one: whenever i pick up a passenger i have to put on my meter, this applies wether i work alone or for a private hire company. Now if the meter comes to £5 for example i can charge £5 or less but no more, this i understand. Now if i work in a private hire company and there price list says £5.40p then i am told i still have to put on the meter and can charge no more than £5 even though the other private hire drivers can charge th £5.40p.

The real problem i have with this is that the area i work there are not many hackneys and the area is not a city but a large town. So if i were to travel 6 miles to make a short run then my meter would go on and i would charge rate 2 £2.97 as the journey would be less than a mile for example. Now should another call come in from the other end of the brough, say another 10 miles from one side to the other, then i would travel 10 miles to make a short run of again £2.97. This would mean that i would make hardly any money as there is not enough work for a hackney within the town!!

Now, i like the safety of the vehicle and the door locking mechanism but i would lose all this if i had to go back to being private hire even though i have a hackney and private hire licences.

Does anybody know a way around this? I would be grateful for any feedback particlulary from hackney drivers working from private hire offices and how there pricing works.

Cheers!
Author:  smiffyz (geoff) [ Mon Sep 18, 2006 5:48 pm ]
Post subject: 
Why cant you plate the euro as private hire? then you keep the safety and things but work on their rates. Have you bought the Hac plate at a premium?
Author:  smiffyz (geoff) [ Mon Sep 18, 2006 5:52 pm ]
Post subject: 
You say your traveling 6 to 10 miles for a short run, does this work come from your own phone or from a PH company?
You said you bought the euro when you were PH why did you change to hac when theres little work around for them?
Author:  Stinky Pete [ Mon Sep 18, 2006 5:54 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Question for Hackney drivers
ARC Taxis wrote:
Now should another call come in from the other end of the brough, say another 10 miles from one side to the other, then i would travel 10 miles to make a short run of again £2.97. This would mean that i would make hardly any money!


mmm, the words "tramming" comes to mind
Author:  ARC Taxis [ Mon Sep 18, 2006 7:33 pm ]
Post subject: 
i bought the hackney carriage when i was private hire as i wanted to start my own company and i thought that the hackney would work in the same way as private hire, therefore allowing me to still earn money when the phone work was building up.

I have a landline number at my home and it diverts to my mobile when someone calls. As for changing to hackney from private hire, well i still have a private hire car and a private hire badge. At the beginging i knew little about the rank but it seemed to be busy in the day but not much at night. So i thought i would give it a go, nothing ventured nothing gained and all that.

The gamble seems to be paying off until i hit this wall from the other driver who seems to delight in knowing everything.

What does tramming mean pete?
Author:  Stinky Pete [ Mon Sep 18, 2006 7:55 pm ]
Post subject: 
ARC Taxis wrote:
What does tramming mean pete?

tramming miles to get the job, running you all over the area cos no other car in the area nearest to the job

in other words you are doing large mileage for little fares.
Author:  captain cab [ Mon Sep 18, 2006 8:00 pm ]
Post subject: 
You're colleague is quite correct, you cannot charge more than the metered fare, but may charge less.

I think section 54 / 55 of the TPCA 1847 cover it.

At least one of the sections make it a level 3 offence which is quite harsh.

I think JD would be able to advise, I wonder if you've spoken to your LO about your problem?

CC
Author:  Chester J.D. [ Mon Sep 18, 2006 8:27 pm ]
Post subject: 
We have a hackney carriage on our private hire fleet,when he picks up off the street he has the meter on but when he picks up a job from the radio he uses the fare chart regardless of whether it is more than the metered rate - if he is doing a radio job then he doesn`t even switch on the meter.I would check with your Licensing Authority.
Author:  ARC Taxis [ Mon Sep 18, 2006 8:51 pm ]
Post subject: 
I am going to check the the licensing authority to check the lay of the land when i can.

I used to work in the hackney cab and work off the private hire price list because i had not been told any different, but it seems that this chap has thrown a spanner in the works!

I know other drivers in my area use hackney cabs and work for offices and use there price lists, so i will stop them and ask them when i can although i know that there answer will probably that they use the offices prices and not the metered prices.

Its's a really confusing issue in my view, i bought the cab for protection, to take the disabled, take phone work and work the ranks, but it seems the law says you can only do certain things and not rip people off which i try not to as i dont want a bad name.
Author:  smiffyz (geoff) [ Mon Sep 18, 2006 8:56 pm ]
Post subject: 
We have areas on the outskirts of town (6-7-8miles for town center) where we charge a minimum fare. IE if we go to a fare 6 miles away and it's only staying in that area (fare approx £3.50) then it's a min of £5.00
Otherwise drivers would just refuse to be dragged to it because there proberbly wouldnt be another job in that area for ages so they'd have to be doing lots of unpaid milage.
BTW our hac's when they do PH jobs also charge the PH fare which happens to be more than Hac rates anyway.
Author:  TDO [ Mon Sep 18, 2006 9:39 pm ]
Post subject: 
I think some LAs allow hacks to charge more than the metered rates if it's pre-booked and the fare is agreed in advance. Whether this is strictly legal or not is another issue, but I think it's a pragmatic solution to the problem whereby a hackney will only do a run if it's paid more than the metered rate; for example, hiked 5 miles to an outlying village to do a one mile job then returning to base empty. Clearly no one would do such a job at that rate, but if there's no PH operating in the area and the punter will pay the price for the job then there's no good reason to disallow it, although as I said whether it's strictly legal or not is another question.

Of course, some LAs also allow a premium for pre-booked work undertaken by a hackney - it's only 20p in Brighton, but £2 in London. That doesn't help Mr ARC of course, but he could mention that to his council.

But generally it's just one of those drawbacks of doing pre-booked work, and it also effects PH to a lesser extent. Also interesting of course is that the customer is being charged different rates although phoning the same office, but again that's one of the inadequacies of the current regime.
Author:  captain cab [ Mon Sep 18, 2006 9:42 pm ]
Post subject: 
Ahh, the good old days when hirings going further than a prescribed distance from the GPO could be negotiated :wink:

But a valid argument for zoning non the less :shock:

CC
Author:  Sussex [ Mon Sep 18, 2006 9:49 pm ]
Post subject: 
For your PH work when you run miles why can't you put the meter on when you get the booking? Then you can discount it to the PH rate. :wink:

Another avenue is to ask the local council to add a booking fee to the fare chart.

All that said it's not that often the PH rate is higher than the taxi rate. Maybe the local taxi trade should ask for a rise. :wink:
Author:  edders23 [ Sat Sep 23, 2006 6:07 pm ]
Post subject: 
My cab firm runs an all Hackney fleet as does every other one in the town many customers ask for a price before booking if it's been agreed that's what you charge although normally a quoted price would be metered rate or less But as we are in a rural area often we get fares come in which involve travelling 5 or 6 miles out to the village to go 2 miles onto another village these we quote. We are covered for this because our table of fares has a clause at the bottom saying "booking fee up to a maximum of £11" this came about after the district council LOST a court case against a cab firm which charged for the mileage involved not the metered rate between 2 villages

If your licensing authority insists you have to only charge metered rate between the 2 points then I would suggest picking your jobs so as not to clock up so much dead mileage
Author:  TDO [ Sat Sep 23, 2006 6:14 pm ]
Post subject: 
Interesting about the booking fee - that was what I was going on about a few days ago.

But that's the kind of thing that could do with clarifing re new legislation.
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